Russia angrily denies German allegations on 2015 cyberattack

MOSCOW – The Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday angrily rejected Germany’s allegations over Russian intelligence involvement in a cyberattack against the German parliament.

The ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said the claim concerning a 2015 hacking attack on the German parliament was “absurd” and “unfounded.”

Last week, the German Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador to say it would be pursuing EU sanctions against Russian citizen Dmitriy Badin, an alleged officer with Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency. Badin was already being sought by U.S. authorities and is believed to be part of the hacker group known as APT28, or Fancy Bear.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said earlier this month there was “hard evidence” that correspondence from her parliamentary office was among the documents targeted in the attack.

Speaking at a briefing, Zakharova dismissed the German allegations and emphasized that they were based on information from the United States.

“We resolutely reject the unfounded German allegations of Russian government structures’ involvement in the 2015 hacking attack on Bundestag,” she said, describing them as “nonsense.”

“Since 2015, Germany hasn’t offered any single (piece of) evidence of Russia’s involvement and hasn’t even explained what is the basis for the accusations against our country,” Zakharova said.

Zakharova challenged Berlin to provide proof of Russian involvement, saying that Moscow stands ready for a detailed discussion on the subject and will see the failure to show documentary evidence as a proof that the accusations were unfounded.

“If Germany indeed has documentary proof of somebody’s guilt provided by Washington, Russia is ready to consider it,” she said. “Nothing can be easier than to produce that reliable evidence, as they call it.”